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Oklahoma football: Where does OU fall among most ‘valuable’ college programs?

By Chip Rouse

DALLAS, TEXAS - OCTOBER 12: Oklahoma Sooners cheerleaders hold up megaphones during the 2019 AT&T Red River Showdown at Cotton Bowl on October 12, 2019 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
DALLAS, TEXAS - OCTOBER 12: Oklahoma Sooners cheerleaders hold up megaphones during the 2019 AT&T Red River Showdown at Cotton Bowl on October 12, 2019 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /
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When you consider the most successful or winningest college football programs on record, Oklahoma football is right there among the very best.

If you change the evaluation basis, however, to most valuable, based on revenue creation, how do the Sooners stack up against the best of the best?

The top-25 teams on that list might not surprise you, but the top-10 certainly should. And if not, the order of the teams most definitely will.

According to the financial news and information website gobankingrates.com, which researched the athletics data for college football’s top programs, using the most recent revenue numbers available (2019-20 before the Covid-19 pandemic), Oklahoma heads the list with an annual revenue of $101.1 million.

“Oklahoma is the only school to surpass the nine-figure mark in these rankings,” wrote James Parks of FanNation.com, a sports website affiliated with Sports Illustrated. “Oklahoma has been a consistent winner this century and is the winningest school since World War II.

“OU has been on a firm foundation since 2000, first under Bob Stoops, and then Lincoln Riley, who guided it into the College Football Playoff era, but is starting over with Brent Venables, the sport’s most respected defensive strategist,” he wrote.

The top-10 teams, based on the gobankingrates analysis are:

  1. Oklahoma Sooners ($101.1 million)
  2. Texas Longhorns  ($97.2 million)
  3. Georgia Bulldogs  ($85.4 million)
  4. Notre Dame Fighting Irish ($83.7 million)
  5. Michigan Wolverines ($72.3 million)
  6. Alabama Crimson Tide ($61.4 million)
  7. Tennessee Volunteers ($60.8 million)
  8. Texas A&M Aggies ($55.8 million)
  9. Utah Utes ($53.1 million)
  10. Arkansas Razorbacks ($52.0 million

Eleven through 15: Auburn Tigers, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Florida Gators, Ole Miss Rebels and Wisconsin Badgers.

Sixteen through 20: Oregon Ducks, Penn State Nittany Lions, Iowa State Cyclones, Washington Huskies, Minnesota Gophers.

Twenty-one through 25: South Carolina Gamecocks, Ohio State Buckeyes, Clemson Tigers, North Carolina Tarheels and Iowa Hawkeyes.

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